Gesture
by liltle
Summary: Keep on running and you’ll never see the lights again. 6986


**Gesture**  
-6986-**  
**

Summary: Keep on running and you'll never see the lights again.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, from the characters to the manga, owned the respective author itself.

* * *

She didn't know why things always seem to happen, to her in particular, that is.

Things that seemed to always take her to the wrong side of yet about anything, most of the time, that is.

Just take the example of her meeting with Tsuna-san. She never thought she'd fall for him when she first saw Reborn and yet she did. Though it was thrilling that something exciting always appeared whenever she's around him, yet… it just didn't feel normal, and she had always wanted that, somehow, now that she thinks about it again.

When she was a child, she was told to always "…study, study, study. Make sure you don't forget to do your homework, sweetheart." That was from her mother and she still think that it's wrong. Kids are meant to play around, run here run there forget about the world and just go round and round,… not study all the time. Those duties are meant for the bigger kids, they're too old to run around anyway, they'll take most of the space in this town's small streets and that would be bothersome for the little ones. Oh well, she reflected, that's just how things turned out for her anyway.

But she didn't complain much. She topped her class with the highest scores that led her to Midori Junior High for girls, one of the hard-to-get elite schools in the district. Hard work paid off, of course. But it was just that…

* * *

"Bullied again?"

It was that voice again. He's here, again.

She stared up at the figure sitting idly on top of her school's fence. It took her awhile to finally adjust her vision from the scorching light coming from the sun, which still manages to hide half of his face from her view from where she was sitting, a smile could be seen plastered on his face and she couldn't resist but returned his smile.

"You're here again," she said, sounding half-amused, half relieved. She didn't expect to see him again. Not in this situation, again._ But maybe,_ she thought, that's why he's here… _maybe_.

"I was bored," he replied and it showed on his face when he made an expression that clearly states his boredom and she had the urge to laugh at it. He always manages to make her feel better and she's glad that he's here.

She smiled at him and nodded, letting out a long, painful sigh which was made to show how much she agrees with him, "Me too," she said, pausing, "I guess that's why I don't mind what they do to me."

She had meant it as a joke, to relief the tension of any sorrow she had left, but she didn't expected him to be silent. She thought he would come up with some pesky little remarks about her, but nothing came. Somehow, she felt that he sympathies with her, which was rather pathetic, for her that is.

So she thought she'd change the subject and tried to come up with something better to talk about, until he said, "When you keep on running away from it, you'll end up never seeing the lights again." Her eyes goes wide for a moment when sudden realization came upon her, while he stared at her, hard, almost blaming her for her current situation. And she couldn't help but break the stare.

Staring down at her hands while playfully fiddling it, she suddenly felt like crying. His words were true. She was always running away from situations that didn't suited her, that she didn't know how to handle, and she never thought of trying.

She remembered trying to stand up on her mother once, even practiced her speech first handedly for like a dozen times until when she finally got the courage to confront her, her head suddenly went blank and those words she had repeated over and over again in her head never escaped her mouth. She was afraid to say it, always was a coward, always afraid.

_Of what?, _she once asked herself and later sighed on her own question.

She knew the answer very well, actually. She was, after all, an only child in her family and that her parents had high expectations from her. Her father was a Professor in one of the many prestigious universities in Japan and she was a Professor's daughter. Big expectation comes from that, and her mother never seems to hide those facts when meeting with her neighbors or other parents from her school. Always praising her, never cease to hide her achievement from anyone. _Or rather_, she thought, _praising __**herself**__ for her__ success so far_. But she didn't care about that so much, as long as her mother is happy, she should feel the same way too.

So she thought of an easier way to comfort herself from any sorrows left from her; kept it in a box and never let it out, easier as that. _You'll forget about it one day_, she kept on telling herself that, _it always does. _

Then, when she was in Junior High, her friends started to distance herself from her. Not that she had many friends at that time, with her mother's frequent interference in her study life; most people just became friendly with her, not more than that.

But when she met Tsuna-san, it was a different story altogether. She was able to open up freely with others when communicating with them, presumably those close to Tsuna-san and she was happy with her current situation.

But as always, something wrong never seemed to escape her.

She had to double up her studies in fear her mother would find out about her current attachment with her new friends. She had to avoid, as much as possible, those whom her mother has associated with when trying to meet with them, and it always was a pain for her side, always trying, always lying. But she thought, for the sake of her friends as well as her new-profound happiness, she tried to endure it, yet again escaping another terror from her mother.

She had complications, she knows that, teenage problems obviously. That's normal for any teenagers, right? But somehow, it didn't quite turn out for the best for her. She didn't believe in many people at her school, wasn't too close with them anyway, all because of her constant hanging-out with her friends at Namimori, which had somehow triggered a cord to those whom she once called friends at her school. Maybe it was jealousy(_from what?_ she had to ask), or probably they feel that this elite school was too much for someone as low as those in a public school. But she just doesn't get it, she thought it ridiculous too, how these girls'(some of them to be exact) think these days, their narrow views are disturbing, and it disturbed her a lot.

Her so-called friends, in particular, came from a branch of rich people, in which they were, probably, entered the school by some sort of an agreement with the school's administration, money-involved, possibly, as she had once heard it from one of the three '_**friends**_' who had a slip-up on one of their conversation involving boys and blah blah, and later on after realizing her mistake corrected herself while trying to change the subject. _Not quite smart enough_, in Haru's view. But that really wasn't the whole picture; she was actually, thrown to her by some unfortunate event, to a group of students who thinks so highly of themselves in their first day of Junior High. And that was what went wrong with her life.

When she had first associated herself with them, they seemed nice and Haru could actually admit to herself that she had finally found true friends, it was at that one moment only did she thought like that when they started to show their fangs. They had another face underlying them and she was one of their many victims who had fall to their traps, there were after all, no escape route.

They would start with asking for her homework for them to copy. Then, tell her many excuses for her to copy her notes and do their assignments for them. After that, they dared their actions while asking for some money from her, giving excuses such as "My daddy didn't give me any," which was such an obvious lie, as no rich brats ever left home without any money.

But she didn't minded so much at that point and complied because if she once resisted, she knew the consequences. In their ideology, victims are servants and servants are an outcast. Just like in those many movies and dramas where people who were bullied were always told off and unwanted situation would stirred up, which in the end, wouldn't please her mother at all, not one bit of it. So she remained silent and obedient.

Just as she was now.

The problem of having them in the first place was that Haru never had any close friends when she was in Elementary school. Her classmates was always nice to her, she have to admit that, but because of her pleasant achievement in class, they felt as if she didn't belong with them and that was why they didn't talk to her that much. She never had anyone to tell her what to do in this sort of situation, or anyone to talk to as it seems.

Back with Bianci-san and Kyoko-chan, she could always ask for their advices but felt like she didn't want to mix their friendship with things as depressing as this. She always found their company as comforting and pleasing, as well as with the others, and ruining it while mentioning about her problems would tense up the atmosphere. It was enough, she could see, what the boys were going through, and sometimes even things troubled Bianci-san and Kyoko-chan, adding in her frustration wasn't even an option. _They shouldn't know_, she thought. _No, they must never know_. She affirmed herself and tears started to slip from her eyes and she couldn't contain herself anymore. It was just too sad to think about it, really.

Then, a hand came and touched her face, so gently, such familiar hands, caressing almost tender-like on her face, lightly brushing off those liquid that had streamed from her eyes, and a blush almost instantly, crept to her face from the sudden gesture.

Looking up, she saw him smile at her, _so tender_, she thought, and she couldn't feel her tears coming out from her eyes anymore and wondered what magic he used on her to make it stopped while secretly denying the fondness of his touch that had caused the effect. And somehow just by thinking about this made her deepen her blush and out of embarrassment tried to hide her face from him. Always a comforter, always made her feel better.

That's right, he's always here.

"Big girls don't cry," he said and offered her another smile, no wait, he almost sounded snickering. She frowned, he's laughing at her now and she felt like hitting him, but quickly refrained herself, knowing how he had only meant to comfort her from her sorrows, another one of his mystical magic.

Instead, she forced out a huge smile, as far as her mouth could stretch and nodded her head, eyes slightly closed while giving off a small sound of approval in his action to comfort her.

Then, thinking of something interesting to say, any topic that would keep her from feeling down or showing it to him, just so she could ease her mind and just… talk to him, like they always do.

That's right. Like always.

So she began…

* * *

Since he first came to her life, she remembered that time when she was yet again involved in one of those minor dramas in her school's life. Minor, because they really love making a big fuss on petty little things, and such for that day, she was blamed for dropping a bucket full of used water on one of their tables, the water that she had previously used to clean her classroom from her morning clean-up duty, while they, knowing about this, planned the situation beforehand and had her accused for their evil plan. Their home-room teacher, dreaded them for their father's position in the school, had her punished as soon as first lesson had started.

Holding a bucket full of water on each hand while a smaller one was placed on top of her head, she was to remain like this until first lesson was over.

Haru sighed, balance was essential in this condition, she knew that, but the frustration over her situation was really getting to her.

It hurt so much, her body was aching from every angle from the top to the very bottom. She really felt like crying, thinking about her situation threatens to fall those small foams of liquid in-between her eyes, but was distracted when she heard a voice directed to her, "Students don't get punished like this too often, such for schools like this,… that is."

She tried to turn, as much as her body could take her, to see who had just insulted her and maybe, yell at that person to somehow relief her stress, she wish, because this heavy work really was not her thing to begin with. Yes, she always practices Kendo in her school, those trainings do require heavy works too, but this was a different story altogether. Did anybody ever accounted for her feelings at all, anyone?

The voice she heard a while ago appeared to have come from her front as she heard it say again, "Rather pathetic, don't you think?"

Now, Haru felt the pressure and anger rushing to her all at once and she finally snapped. While glaring at the intruder, she tried to swing the bucket in her right hand and hopefully landed on his pathetic smirking face, but it had all gone too wrong for her because she had first treated the material in her hand as just a bucket, not regarding the full water in it, which had splashed half of it's content on her feet. But she did also disregarded on how fast he was to avoid her assault in which a moment ago he was right in front of her, and the next later, his face appeared a few inches from hers, which had quickly reddened from the sudden realization of the current closeness.

_Those eyes_, she thought, _there's something about it. Perhaps something,… mesmerizing?_

She was completely drawn to it and couldn't move an inch from where she stood, which was a good thing when she later on realizes it because he had one hand supporting the bucket on top of her head and another gripping firmly on her right hand, which was the cause of her halt from her reckless action.

His hands are cold, she noted, and after a while of sudden motionless atmosphere between the two, Haru, trying to recollect herself, caught his smiles and those smiles, she thought, had somehow made her warmed up. Her cheeks were probably still heating up as ever, while her heart was beating a little bit too fast than its normal pace.

While seeing his smile, she felt like returning the gesture. Smiling as she may, she had decided. _This guy is a nice guy,_ she thought. He's just like a dream.

* * *

Several months later, they frequented their meetings and it was on that fateful day, when they all went to the future, met all those people from 10 years later, that she had met the older him.

"You don't change that much," she observed while putting off a small frown.

To her surprised, he gave off a small chuckle and she heard him whispered under his breath, "cute," almost faintly, just barely enough for her to hear that made her heart fasten and her face redden.

But that wasn't all the surprise there was to it, he gave her another one. He gave her a small, quick kiss on the lips while his smile never faded. Haru felt like she had a heart-attacked and her eyes went wide.

_Did we advance to that_, she thought, and couldn't stop the blush, the heart racing, and the thrill flowing through her body, everything felt too wild for her.

"Neither did you," he murmured softly in-between their lips, just before he parted from her and couldn't refrain himself from chuckling at her current expression.

* * *

Haru had heard Tsuna and the others talking about him that day. It wasn't that long after their last meeting, they were talking about how they couldn't find him anymore, couldn't feel him anywhere and that started to freaked her out.

She wanted to know where he was, was he alright? Did something bad happened to him? Then again, she thought, of course something bad had happened. That girl, Dokuro, who she heard was closes to him and somewhat experienced the same as she did, couldn't detect him anymore, let alone her. It wasn't like she could find him anyway, even if she tried, she didn't know how he had managed to come out to her in the first place but he did mentioned about the time when she had accidently bumped with Dokuro which had caused one of the three spears from the trident she was carrying to accidentally grazed her skin a little, leading him to her whenever he wants to.

She didn't quite understand what he said at that time, only thought how grateful she was that he was there with her.

But now…

* * *

Now, standing in the battlefield with the rest of them, she thought what she'd say to him once she sees him again.  
_I know_, she thought to herself as something clicked in her mind, _I'll make sure he starts to open up to me or he'll eat up his own words_. And she starts to imagine his expression when she says that to him and she smiled at the thought.

_Will he_, she suddenly asked herself. She had a surged of fear in her heart and thought how all these time, she was the one that had always opened up to him, more than she ever did to anyone else. But he,… he never said anything about himself, about his past or his life. And she resented herself for that. She never asked, never dared too, never thought of it really. With all the things that happened in her life, she was afraid to ask. Never want to be deemed as a busy-body, afraid what he'll think of her. But she doesn't mind him, though. _I guess that's all that matters then,_ she thought.

_No more running away_, she assured and told herself, _or I won't see it again_. The beautiful lights, him.

* * *

AN: *Spoilers alert* I really miss him. I'm glad we get to see more of Haru now and I guess that is why I was able to write this. Somehow making Haru close to being OOC, and her OC past. Sorry if that might offend anyone, but then again, this is how I view this story anyway. I'll just leave it to that. Thank you for reading and sorry for any mistakes that's been done.


End file.
